The most successful businesses are those with confidence in their ability to store, access and use data effectively. Rather than focusing on the nuts and bolts of storage, this view point looks at the data it holds and more importantly, what can be done with it.

This review looks at why small businesses need to stop being complacent about their networks and at what they can do to maintain their competitive edge as they follow the big boys down the route of increasing collaboration and other bandwidth-hungry applications likely to impact on network performance and availability.

Google rules out Gmail and Drive apps for Windows 8

Firm has no plans to produce apps for Microsoft systems

Google has revealed that it has no plans to develop dedicated apps for Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 for its business app products such as Gmail or Drive.

Speaking to V3, the firm's product management director at Google Apps, Clay Bavor, said that due to what it sees as a lack of interest from its clients on the systems, it is holding back on any work at present.

"We have no plans to build out Windows apps. We are very careful about where we invest and will go where the users are but they are not on Windows Phone or Windows 8," he said.

"If that changes, we would invest there, of course."

Instead Bavor said the firm was committed to continually improving and updating its iOS and Android products.

"In 2012 we've laid some of the ground work and really improved the experience of our core apps on mobile devices, such as adding native editing of spreadsheets for both iOS and Android apps," he said.

"We really see these as the first versions of our mobile experience, though, so we will continue to make big investments in mobile in 2013 with the goal of having beautiful mobile apps."

Google is determined to make this push around its enterprise offerings as the demand for mobility continues to rocket and the use of cloud systems become an accepted way of working.

"Cloud is no longer a mystery. Almost every company we talk to is going through a monumental change where everyone is using not just one or two devices but sometimes as many as five with tablets, laptops, smartphones and desktop machines," said Bavor.

"The only way you can really provide a user experience that fits this is by using a cloud architecture, so staff can get data on all devices and ensure applications are up to date."